


Girls Night

by snack_size



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Bonding, Character Study, Downtime in the Shatterdome, Friendship - Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket, Friendship - Sasha Kaidanovsky and Mako Mori, Gen, Pampering, Vignette, canonical character deaths, Черно Альфа | Cherno Alpha - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-26
Updated: 2013-07-26
Packaged: 2017-12-21 09:19:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/898590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snack_size/pseuds/snack_size
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako Mori and Sasha Kaidanovsky bond over being some of the only women in the Hong Kong Shatterdome. A short piece exploring that friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Girls Night

“Girl, come here.” 

Mako spun at the sound of the deep voice, about to deliver a pointed and quick retort. But instead she was faced with Sasha Kaidanovsky, who she had formally met yesterday when the Russian team had brought Cherno Alpha to Hong Kong. 

“Yes?” Mako said.

Sasha was leaning in the door of her room. She just beckoned at Mako with her finger, curling it backwards towards her room. Mako debated with herself momentarily - what was the worst that could happen? Not much, considering she was the Marshall’s daughter. So she walked towards Sasha and into her and Aleksis’ quarters. There were still several boxes in the corner, but a lot had been unpacked. Aleksis was nowhere to be seen.

Sasha pointed to a single chair in front of a mirror. “Sit.”

“Why?” Mako asked. She straightened her back. 

Sasha stood behind her and Mako smelled, of all things, cherry blossoms. Really beautiful cherry blossoms, too, like they had just burst and been picked.

“You like the smell?” Sasha asked.

“It’s...” Mako shook her head, not able to really vocalize what she wanted to say. It reminded her of a time before the kaiju, when she would walk with her parents, and it reminded her of her mother.

Sasha pulled her out of the memory. “Gift from Japan. When we saved Sapporo,” Sasha said. “This is why I asked you to come. They said you live with the Marshall?”

“Yes,” Mako said. She could see Sasha behind her, in the mirror, and her bleached blonde hair and red lipstick were almost shocking against her pale skin. Especially when you added the drab looking Mako to the mix - all greys and dark navy, her dark hair framing her face.

“Work around men all the time, live with men,” Sasha said. “You feel better if you do something pretty.”

“I-” Mako pressed her lips together. She didn’t want to be disrespectful, since Sasha was a decorated Ranger, legendary, really, and probably ten years older than she was. “I am not here to look pretty.”

“No, sorry,” Sasha said. “You do something pretty for yourself. Ah.” She pulled a phone out of the pocket of her enormous military jacket and quickly typed on it. “Pamper.” She showed the phone to Mako. 

“Oh,” said Mako. She thought back to the vacation she and Sensei had taken, just a few months ago, and how she had spent an hour laying in the bathtub in their hotel, surrounded by bubbles. Pampering, she could do. “What did you have in mind?”

Sasha shrugged, but she was smiling. “Nails, hair, feet nails.” She kicked at a box on the floor and Mako peered inside. There were more beauty products in there than Mako had seen aggregated in one place other than a store. She recognized some as quite expensive - but then, being a legendary Jaeger pilot probably helped.

“Maybe hair,” Mako said, glancing at Sasha’s own style. She touched the ends of the standard bob she had been wearing for years. 

“Sure,” said Sasha. She reached forward and touched the edges of Mako’s bob by her chin. “Keep long here, but short going back. Buzz in back. Maybe a color?” 

“You do hair like that?” Mako asked. 

“How do you think Alyosha and I look so good?” Sasha asked, and Mako could tell there was a story there - that Sasha had trained as a beautician in Moscow, that she used to be in charge of cutting the hair for her many siblings. Sasha wasn’t offering that, though.

“Yes,” Mako said. “Hair.” 

Sasha grabbed at one of Aleksis’ shirts. She slid it over Mako, and both of them laughed when the neck hole slid down around Mako’s shoulders. “He is a big man,” Sasha said, her lip curling slightly. Mako just nodded. It was true.

Sasha cut a hole in a garbage bag and slipped it over Mako’s head. From the cardboard box she pulled a utilitarian case that had a set of clippers in it, several scissors, and a razor. “Music?” 

“Sure,” Mako said. She expected the house music that the Russian team had pumped throughout their corner of the Shatterdome, instead, it was pop songs from the decade before the kaiju. They were songs Mako was used to when there were retrospective shows about that time, or on an easy listening radio station that she would sometimes listen to when she tried to go to sleep. 

It made her wonder what it would have been like to be twenty and not have to think about the kaiju or about being a Jaeger pilot. Sasha turned her away from the mirror for the majority of the haircut and at several points she got quite close to Mako’s face as she checked to ensure the angles were sharp and symmetrical. She was gorgeous, Mako realized, and was surprised she hadn’t noticed before. What had she done before the kaiju? Mako was fairly certain that she had always been the sort of woman that you did not fuck with. 

Mako only became nervous when Sasha took the clippers out and took them to the back of her hair. She winced slightly as she felt the hair hit her back and then fall to the floor. Sasha routinely brushed it off the garbage bag.

As she put the clippers away the door opened. Mako saw Aleksis in the mirror, and he looked confused. He asked something in Russian, presumably _what are you doing?_

Sasha answered something in Russian. Then she said, “Girl things.” Whatever she said in Russian had been significantly longer.

“Ms. Mori,” he said. “Hello.”

“Hello,” she replied. Sasha turned her so that she could see herself in the mirror. Mako tilted her head, marveling at how perfect the haircut was - literally perfect, since it was angled and precise on both sides.

“Get mirror so she can see,” Sasha said, and Aleksis quickly handed Sasha a hand held mirror and turned her so she could inspect the back of the cut, which had been buzzed at the bottom while the top was a perfect straight line from where the angle stopped.

“Oh, my,” Mako said. She looked good - she looked tough. Not just some secretary with a bob haircut. She looked like a warrior. Like a Jaeger pilot. “I love it.” 

“Yes?” Sasha asked.

“Very good,” said Aleksis. “Look scary.” 

“Yes,” Mako said, and she smiled at Sasha. “Perfect.” 

The next Wednesday Sasha nodded at her in the mess hall, and Mako walked over to her quarters after the meal. They painted each others toenails and Mako chose the music. The week after that, Sasha had a face mask she had got sent in from Moscow. And then, it was a thing. One Wednesday both Sasha and Aleksis convinced her to put the electric blue streaks in her hair. Another week, she gave Aleksis a manicure - no polish, but she cleaned and clipped his nails and cuticles and buffed the nails until they shined. 

“Now you look like a real gentleman pilot,” Sasha said, and Aleksis laughed, a real, genuine warm laugh that made Mako understand why Sasha had married him. 

Usually it was like that, but one evening Sasha grabbed her by the wrist at the mess hall. “Shipment has come in,” she said. “We are going shopping.” 

“How do you know this?” Mako asked, as Sasha led her through several crowded Hong Kong streets until they made it to a nondescript looking building.

“Business to know,” Sasha said. “Haven’t you heard? Russians know everything. Russians get you everything.” Mako didn’t smile at that, even as Sasha laughed - she knew about her father’s plans, at that point, and how the only way he was going to get a nuclear payload big enough would be if the Kaidanovsky’s connections came through. 

Mako knew that there was a thriving black market in Hong Kong, but she had never been to any centers. “Well,” she said. The place was full of things from cheap to luxurious. 

“What do you want?” Sasha asked. 

Mako glanced around at the various stalls. “Shoes,” she said. She was not sure why, but she definitely wanted a pair of high heeled shoes. 

Back in Sasha’s room, she tried them on for a second time. They weren’t extravagant, but they were brilliant - deep blue leather, pointed toe, and a four inch heel that made Mako nearly as tall as Sasha. When she stood in them she tumbled, and she felt quite stupid. For all her time in the Kwoon room, all her training. 

“Not easy,” said Sasha. “Small steps, heel first.” She reached under her bed and pulled out a shoe box that contained red suede heels, almost the same color as her lipstick. “Watch.”

It took perhaps five minutes before Mako figured it out. “From your hips,” Sasha said. “Strut.” She sat back on the bed and watched Mako walk before kicking hers off. “You will wear on date.” Mako laughed, but Sasha smiled at her. 

The next week, Mako was able to trade in some of the ration tickets she’d saved up for a bottle of sparkling pink wine.

“Now this is girl stuff,” Sasha said. “Cannot be more girl stuff.” She pressed her thumbs to the cork and removed it without a slight hiss and pop. “No, it can.”

She brought her computer over to the double bed and pulled up her wedding photos. Mako sighed - Sasha looked like a movie star in a simple white column, and Aleksis looked soft and friendly. His hair was still all black, and Sasha’s was longer and deeper blonde. 

“Do you like someone?” Sasha asked.

“I...” Mako frowned. “Not really. I mean-”

“World is ending,” Sasha said. “Maybe you are not in love. Maybe you are in like.” 

“I have liked boys,” Mako replied. “They were all right.”

Sasha nodded. “Need better than all right.” She cocked her head. “Maybe triplets?”

“They play tricks,” Mako said. “Pretend to be each other.” She suspected that this was flirting.

“That is why you fuck all three at once,” Sasha said. Mako laughed. 

The Wednesday after they closed the breach she went to Sasha’s door and knocked on it before she realized that her friend wasn’t there. 

She pulled her hand down after the first knock and felt her throat constrict - she should have known better. She had been to their memorial. She had given an interview on Russian television about their bravery. 

She just hadn’t realized there weren’t going to be any Wednesdays anymore.

She turned and pressed her back against the door and let herself slide down to the floor. She wrapped her hands around her knees. She didn’t know how long she was there before she heard Raleigh come down the hall. “Mako, I was looking for - are you OK?”

“We used to spend our Wednesday together,” she said to him. Raleigh gave her a soft smile before he sat down next to her.

“You had girls’ nights,” he said. Mako sniffled and rubbed at her cheeks - she felt like a terrible friend. She should have cried for Sasha sooner.

Raleigh wrapped his arm around her and brought her into his chest. “It’s OK,” he said. He let her cry until she was just hiccuping slightly. When she had finally run dry, she sighed. Then Raleigh said, “You know, you can give me a pedicure. If you want. I could use one.” 

“OK,” Mako said.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this prompt at the [pacificrim kink meme](http://pacificrimkink.livejournal.com/):  
>  _So it has got to get old, being a woman surrounded by a bunch of men. I'd bet the both of them know this. Can we have the pair of them doing some girl stuff? Maybe Sasha helping Mako put those blue tips in her hair? Maybe Mako helping Sasha do her nails in the perfect shade of red to match her lipstick? Or maybe they head out for a round of shopping? And then...someone decides a pair of pretty ladies is an easy target. Cue massive ass whuppin from the girls. Maybe even in heels._  
>  Basically, these two are good friends and will curb stomp your ass and not even chip their nail polish. 
> 
>  
> 
> _Bonus: Aleksis as well...somehow. Its hard for me to picture one Russian without the other. Maybe he's slightly put out because he "didn't get to have any fun" i.e. didn't get to participate in said ass whuppin._


End file.
